Table of Contents
FROM THE PAGES OF THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË
Title Page
Copyright Page
ELIZABETH GASKELL
THE WORLD OF ELIZABETH GASKELL AND THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË
Introduction
THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË,
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.The History of the Year 1829.THE WOUNDED STAG.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.(Written In Pencil to a Friend.)(To Emily, About This Time.)
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË,
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.To Messrs. Smith and Elder.To Messrs. Smith and Elder.To Messrs. Smith and Elder.Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co.Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co.Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co.Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co.To Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co.To Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co.To G. H. Lewes, Esq.To W. S. Williams, Esq.To G. H. Lewes, Esq.To G. H. Lewes, Esq.To W S. Williams, Esq.
CHAPTER III.From Anne Brontë.
CHAPTER IV.To W.S. Williams, Esq.To G. H. Lewes, Esq.
CHAPTER V.To G. H. Lewes, Esq.To G. H. Lewes, Esq.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.To G. Smith, Esq.To W. S. Williams, Esq.
CHAPTER XII.To G. Smith, Esq.To W. S. Williams, Esq.
CHAPTER XIII.To Miss Wooler.
CHAPTER XIV.
ENDNOTES
THE LEGACY OF THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË
COMMENTS & QUESTIONS
FOR FURTHER READING
FROM THE PAGES OF THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË
The parsonage stands at right angles to the road, facing down upon the church; so that, in fact, parsonage, church, and belfried school-house, form three sides of an irregular oblong, of which the fourth is open to the fields and moors that lie beyond. (page 13)
For a right understanding of the life of my dear friend, Charlotte Brontë, it appears to me more necessary in her case than in most others, that the reader should be made acquainted with the peculiar forms of population and society amidst which her earliest years were passed, and from which both her own and her sisters’ first impressions of human life must have been received. (page 18)
Children leading a secluded life are often thoughtful and dreamy: the impressions made upon them by the world without—the unusual sights of earth and sky—the accidental meetings with strange faces and figures—(rare occurrences in those out-of-the-way places)—are sometimes magnified by them into things so deeply significant as to be almost supernatural. (page 74)
“Human affairs are mutable, and human resolutions must bend to the course of events. We are all about to divide, break up, separate. Emily is going to school, Branwell is going to London, and I am going to be a governess.” (page 107)
“I am no teacher; to look on me in that light is to mistake me. To teach is not my vocation. What I am, it is useless to say. Those whom it concerns feel and find it out.” (page 326)
“I want us all to get on. I know we have talents, and I want them to be turned to account.” (page 166)
“Perfection is not the lot of humanity; and as long as we can regard those we love, and to whom we are closely allied, with profound and never-shaken esteem, it is a small thing that they should vex us occasionally by what appear to us unreasonable and headstrong notions.”
(page 231)
“There is no more respectable character on this earth than an unmarried woman, who makes her way through life quietly, perseveringly, without support of husband or brother.” (page 232)
She went on with her work steadily. But it was dreary to write without any one to listen to the progress of her tale,—to find fault or to sympathise,—while pacing the length of the parlour in the evenings, as in the days that were no more. Three sisters had done this,—then two, the other sister dropping off from the walk,—and now one was left desolate, to listen for echoing steps that never came,—and to hear the wind sobbing at the windows, with an almost articulate sound. (pages 317—318)
The characters were her companions in the quiet hours, which she spent utterly alone, unable often to stir out of doors for many days together. The interests of the persons in her novels supplied the lack of interest in her own life; and Memory and Imagination found their appropriate work, and ceased to prey upon her vitals. But too frequently she could not write, could not see her people, nor hear them speak; a great mist of headache had blotted them out; they were non existent to her. (page 402)
I appeal to that larger and more solemn public, who know how to look with tender humility at faults and errors; how to admire generously extraordinary genius, and how to reverence with warm, full hearts all noble virtue. To that Public I commit the memory of Charlotte Brontë. (page 454)
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The Life of Charlotte Brontë first appeared in 1857.
Published in 2005 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction, Notes, Biography, Chronology, The Legacy of, Comments & Questions, and For Further Reading.
Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading
Copyright © 2005 by Anne Taranto.
Note on Elizabeth Gaskell, The World of Elizabeth Gaskell and
The Life of Charlotte Brontë, The Legacy of The Life of Charlotte Brontë, and Comments & Questions
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The Life of Charlotte Brontë
ISBN 1-59308-314-9
eISBN : 978-1-411-43256-7
LC Control Number 2004116678
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FIRST PRINTING
ELIZABETH GASKELL
Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson was born in London in 1810, the daughter of Unitarian parents. Her father chose a variety of different careers, including experimental farming, preaching in the Unitarian church, and writing for various periodicals. Her mother died the year after Elizabeth was born, and of the eight children she bore, only two survived childhood. Elizabeth was raised by her maternal aunt, Hannah Holland Lumb, whose farm in rural Knutsford provided a serene and happy childhood for the young girl. Unitarians believed in education for girls, and after lessons at home Elizabeth was further educated at a progressive boarding school.
Elizabeth’s ties to her brother John were kept up through letters and occasional visits. After setting sail for India in 1828, he disappeared without a trace, leaving Elizabeth stunned and her father in deep depression. Her father’s failing health compelled Elizabeth to travel to London to nurse him until his death the following year. After his death, Elizabeth visited a variety of cultured family members, and met William Gaskell, an assistant Unitarian preacher in Manchester, whom she wed in 1832.